If anyone gets the allure of dieting, it’s me. I swear if you could get a PhD in diets, I’d have at least five. I actually have more experience dieting (started at 12) than I do as a registered dietitian!
But as you’ve heard me say a million times, dieting is bad (mmm kaaaay?). I’m not going to list all the negative aspects in this post… although I’d LOVE to see them in the comments 
I’ll just say this: diets promote thinness, science says thinness is not health, our culture says we need to be thin to be worth a damn (that’s discrimination we should not tolerate). As long as weight loss is the goal and primary focus VS health and wellness, behavior change, quality of life, absence of disease, all we’re doing is delaying the freedom, flexibility, knowledge, and empowerment that comes with living a truly #mefirst balanced life.
I’m going to take every chance I get to lay the “smack down” on diets and diet-mindedness. That’s why when Fox 5 wanted me to stay up past my bedtime to do a late night TV appearance on the Consumer Reports diet rankings, I said YES. I didn’t care that I’d lose sleep. This topic is too important. YOU are too important for me to keep my mouth shut.
So, here’s what I said… Sound off in the comments. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? What points would YOU have made if you were on there?
Consumer Reports Names Jenny Craig Best Diet: MyFoxDC.com
I completely agree with you. I read those rankings and thought “where is the real world in all this?” Meal replacement programs like Jenny Craig work by protecting people from making decisions about what to eat. And there’s the catch: dieters learn nothing about living in the real world. No one can stick to those diets for long, and when they go off the program, they’re right back where they started. They mistakenly think there was something magic about the diet plan, and blame themselves for failing to stick with it. No, it was just plain old calorie control.
I agree with you… I think the interviewer was frustrated with your answers, wanting you to just name a diet plan that works. But the message needs to get out to everyone in as many avenues as possible, diets aren’t the answer! We need to be healthy, and that comes from so many more areas than just being “skinny”. It’s having a good balance of mental, physical, emotional, etc. health. It’s having a balance so that we can go to a birthday party and enjoy the cake but also be able to enjoy a salad without putting moral values on any of those foods!
(Does it bother you that they call you a ‘nutritionist’ instead of a dietitian?)
Great job Rebecca. He really wanted you to name a good “diet” didn’t he? I’m glad you talked about balance and not completely restricting yourself if you go to an event like a baseball game. That is something I try to get through to the Mamavation moms.
I would call it lifestyle change. I just started facilitating a weight management program last night – and we are only focusing on the participants behaviors the first several weeks. We don’t talk about “good” or “bad” foods, “diet” or becoming skinny – we talk about a healthier version of you. I was so upset at how many people said that it was their “last” day of eating. I kept telling them NO! It isn’t the last day – it is the first day of taking control of their eating but no more banned foods.
Hey guys thanks so much for the support! Alysa, excellent work with the mamavation moms! As someone who used to diet all the time, I really thought that was the answer and it was HARD to convince me it was NOT the answer.
We need to do all we can to let people know that by dissing diets we aren’t judging them for thinking they work or even for believing they help with weight loss. It is the idea as Shelley said that we are talking about forever weight loss and healthy weight that may not be “thinness” and that the focus should be health, not weight.
We really need to get rid of the word dieting altogether and recognize diet products, special “food” plans, and other gimmicks as a money-making scheme that does not have our health in mind.
I hate how the word diet has been hijacked and is used as a verb. Plain and simple, a diet is a way of eating (a noun) and every living thing has a diet. Perhaps if we looked at it this way and focused on sustainable changes to have a healthy diet, we’d be better off. Ask me if I’m on a diet, my answer is of course I have a diet!
[...] Scritchfield gets it so right in her summary of why diets don’t [...]
“Diets” don’t work. Plain and simple. While I respect people for trying to make a change in their lives, “dieting” is just not the best way to do it. When the diet is over, one is left with no direction on where to go next and usually returns to old eating habits. Better results will occur if one tries to make changes slowly over time. Thanks Rebecca for shedding light on this issue!